Lily of the valley Christmas card.

Hello all, i hope you're enjoying your weekend. Another dry day here in Chester so i think we'll be going for a walk into town later. I may be able to kick Speedy into action with his part of the Christmas shopping .Speaking of Christmas, i've made another card. I don't really enjoy making Christmas cards and it really shows in this one, it's sort of bunged together,lol.

The stamp is from Lily of the Valley and along with Papermania Deck the Halls papers and a Penny Black clear set, it is the only stash i've bough for Christmas cards this year as i bought quite a lot last year and need to use it up. The greeting is from a Papermania clear set. The matting and scalloped circle are done in a holly green  but it looks black in the photo. I need to count up my Christmas cards in the hope that i have enough and won't have to make any more and can just play around making gifts.

 Thanks for visiting, see you soon. Di.xx

A fowl stocking filler.

Back to the stocking fillers with one for the grown ups again. I'm really enjoying dreaming up these naughty ideas. I think this is the outcome of going to a strict all girls school,lol.

 These little bags began with a trawl of Google images where i found the turkey. You can get it HERE. I downloaded it to Picasa and added the text. These projects aren't really in need of great colouring efforts, in fact if you're short of time there's plenty of turkey clip art available already coloured in. My recipients aren't likely to actually use the stuffing mix so i bought Tesco basics at 15p for enough for 2 bags. I made 8 bags for the bargain price of 60p!

Here's a close up. The bags are the ones i use for my 6"x4" cards. I haven't made a 6"x4" card for ages as i'm much more comfortable with square ones for some reason. I can't wait to start dishing these out, child as i am,lol. The local butcher is getting one along with the chef from the local pub. The rest will go to friends  and family.
 Off to work now , see you soon.    Di.xx

Target weight 9st 2lb. Today's weight 9st.0lb.

Happy new home.

Speedy's eldest son Simon has given us the fantastic news that he's bought a house. He's been living with his ex girlfriend for about 7 years. They are still really good mates but when they decided to call it a day he wasn't earning enough money so they became housemates. Simon has since had quite a few promotions and now is the time to buy himself a few bricks.

Completion date is this weekend so as soon as we hear confirmation i'll put this card through his letterbox as i pass the house on the way to work. As you've probably guessed it needs a bit of DIY. The sandpaper effect backing paper is DCWV and i found a bit of K&CO "life's journey" ruler paper in my scraps.

The image is from the Papermania "it's a mans world" clear set. After taking the photo i chalked around him in grey as i decided he didn't look mucky enough. The sentiment is done on the computer.
I'm off today and tomorrow so it's a bit of housework, a bit of Christmas shopping and i've had a couple more stocking filler ideas to work on.     See you soon with the results.  Di.xx

Reindeer card.

No gifty things today but staying with the christmas theme. I bought a set of D'arcies stamps last year and when i was tidying some of my mess i found a sheet of these reindeer already coloured in. They were done with watercolour pencils as i didn't have my promarkers then. So i thought i'd better turn them into finished cards otherwise they'll hang around for another year. Here's the first one.

The larger backing paper is DCVW stack 6 and the smaller ones are either Papermania or Dovecraft. They are also from last year in the days before my blog when i could chuck the packaging away with gay abandon.

A couple of punched flowers (where would we be without these) added a bit of dimension and a bit of stickles sparkled it up a bit.
Well, there's plenty of sunlight shining into my living room so i'm giong to thread up a few beads while i can see the holes. Enjoy your sunday. Di.xx

In a jam.

Another gift for those awkward people, mainly men but also perhaps an elderly relative or neighbour. I was browsing the "posh" jars in M&S and there was lots of potential for this gift. Cooks ingredients like pesto etc, chutneys and even everyday redcurrant jelly and horseradish sauce.I chose these two jams but i'll be heading back there soon.

It was a bit of a fiddle getting the box the right size but i used cheap A4 paper till i got it right. I stood the jars on it and drew the base size then added two and a half inches to each side for the height. It still wasn't right first time but i got there in the end.

A word of advice, use the thickest card you can get your hands on for this size jar. Mine is medium to heavyweight but could do with being a bit stronger. Perhaps another card matting layer under the paper ( Papermania home for christmas) would be an idea for next time. I glued a piece of card inside the base too. Then i realised the jars needed to be wrapped together in cellophane to keep them inside the box, luckily i had some in. The tag stamp is from a Papermania clear set and the ribbon was from Abakhan.These boxes can be used for all sorts, two bubble baths, boxes of posh cookies as long as they're quite dumpy boxes, rolled up socks, in fact two of anything. once you've worked out the size they are quite simple. Leave a comment if you've any brainwaves for contents.
                Thanks for looking, see you soon . Di.xx

Target weight, 9st 2lb. Todays weight, 9st. (Sorry if this is boring but it's the only way i'll stay on track.)

More festive smut.

Hello everyone, i'm back with another smutty gift idea for the men.I saw these Tesco own brand chocolate baubles, and i thought "hmmm, smut opportunity". So i bought some and made up a little poem., which i printed out in Hello Sark font size 14.

I used the bags i use for my 4"x6" cards again. You get 8 chocs but 2 of them are bell shaped so i had to eat them,lol.

I hate photographing anything red. I've tried to tweek the saturation with picassa but without success. Never mind here's a close up of the poem.

These will go out just before Christmas when all the men are grumbling about having to help put the deccies up before they can go to the pub,lol. Bless 'em. I went to the docs this morning. There's a B &M next door and i had a quick look. They had smarties balls and Cadbury white chocolate ones but i was heading into town and didn't want to carry any extra shopping. Still, there's always tomorrow..........

EDIT, excuse me while i fiddle about with my blog, i didn't like that halloween background,it was too dark and my pics were too small. I may stop playing around eventually,lol.

Simple gift box.

I've been to The Papermill shop at Cheshire Oaks this morning. I read on the Docrafts forum that they were closing down so Speedy was roped into taking me there to stock up. There weren't many colours left in the card but at least I've got plenty of white now.
When i got back the sunshine had gone and it was dull as dull could be. I took 61 photos of this box and still couldn't get a decent one so had to settle for this one. It's made with ribbon and a gift tag from Wilkinson's. If you fancy making one I'd advise looking for better tags elsewhere as the glitter is very loose and got everywhere, you get what you pay for i suppose.

Here are the offending tags, the fact that the bag is full of glitter should have put me off, lol. The ribbon is fine though.

I punched a bigger hole and added another one opposite and threaded the ribbon through. I put a couple of 3d foam pads under the tag to keep it in place. I added a few peel off corners in gold to match the tag. I don't yet know what will go in it but the colour suggests something Cadbury's, perhaps a snowman soup kit. The box measures five and a half inches square and is one inch deep. I made the bottom with gold mirror card.    Thanks for visiting.  Di.xx

17p Stocking fillers!!

I've been out and about looking for bargains. I needed some beads so I went to Abakhan and got 3 packs of glass pearls, one packet of 3 toggle fasteners and a little storage box. It came to £16, not a bargain! Now I remember why I stopped the jewellery making, lol. Next I went to Primark and bought 3 long sleeved t-shirts and 2 vests for the same amount. Deffo a bargain. Then I went and mooched around Wilkinson's because I had a brainwave for some notebooks. These notepads were 17p each (29p in Tesco if you don't have a Wilkinson's), so i scuttled home to alter them.

I had the "Liszt" idea when i was sorting my den and unearthed the manuscript card I got from Payperbox months ago. Don't worry, there's loads of manuscript papers on google images. I printed the "shopping liszt" in curly cue font size 32 using My Craft Studio. They looked a bit bare so the peel offs came to the rescue. I thought these were all I had left but found more after taking the photo. As if these weren't enough of a bargain check out these for 11p!

Apologies for the not too brilliant photos but yesterday was so dull all day. (They look a bit clearer if you click on them). Still at least Blogger has made the uploading easier, must have had complaints.      Thanks for looking and see you soon. Di.xx

Target weight, 9st 2lb. todays weight 9st 0lb. Don't ask me how, I've not done anything different to the last couple of weeks. Yippee though, a couple of pound to play with at the weekend.

Well, someone had to lower the tone,lol.

I've been making these "poop" bags for the last 2 Christmas's but I've been using the original poop verse. This year I thought I'd do a grown ups version. I'm surprised it has taken me this long to come up with a bit of festive smut!! Well if you're gonna do it do it good style. This is one for the grown ups, or at least the teenagers.

I've erased the naughty word using picasa retouch in case there's any kids looking. I'm sure they'll be able to work it out but at least I'm off the hook, lol. The reason I've done these 2 so early is because the chocs are Cadbury crunchy rocks which are £1 per big bag in Tesco at the moment.  I wanted to show you them before they go back up in case any of you fancy a bit of festive smut giving. I've stocked up and will be making loads of these a bit nearer the time and will be dishing them out in the pub on Christmas eve afternoon when everyone has had a few drinks. I did the verse on the computer and the little reindeer is a D'arcies stamp but a reindeer sticker would work fine. The bags are what I use for 4"x6" cards. I stapled the green layer on before I added the other layers.

EDIT, just out of curiosity, is it easy or hard to leave a comment here, only I've noticed recently on some blogs I have to mess about choosing an ID and signing in etc. If this is the case here I'll try and find out how to alter it.   Di.xx

Finished box.

I finished the little box I started on Thursday. I can see a little scraggy bit on the top corner which needs to be snipped off, lol.

The paper is Papermania Home for Christmas. The stamp is also from a papermania clear set. I bought it from the Docrafts website a while ago for the princely sum of 75p and it has been so useful. The box is quite simple and masculine, deffo one for the boys. Just need to find something to put in it now.

 Another beautiful day here in Chester, I think a wander around town is "on the cards" later, lol.

                                See you soon .     Di.xx

Box under construction.

I was perusing a really good blog called Flutterby Atomic Butterfly and loved Kelly's latest box. I set about making one but i couldn't understand the instructions ( well i did after a while) so i decided to just do my own thing.I started with an A4 sheet of card and trimmed the longer length to 11".

Place card horizontally on your score board and score at 2", 5", 7" and 10". Turn card around ( guess who didn't take a photo of this bit) and score at 11/2", 5" and 7".

With the smallest section on the right cut out to match the above pic ,then score and fold also as above.Sorry about the slightly vague instructions but between mine and Kelly's you should be able to make sense of it all.

This is how it looks when assembled. It doesn't look much at the moment but as mother says, unfinished things are for fools and children to see. I will decorate it on sunday morning and upload it when it's done.

 see you soon. Di, xx

Target weight 9st 2 lb. This mornings weight still 9st 2lb despite my "feeders" trying to fatten me up. Phew!!

Peel offs to the rescue.

I had a phone call on Monday at tea time from the bloke who owns the pub opposite the shop I work at. "I need  an anniversary card, anything with Ian and Sue on it will do" he said. Ok I said , "when do you want it for"? "Are you in work tomorrow" he said!!!. Mind you, he did apologise for the short notice. So off I went and looking round for something for a quick card I stumbled upon my peel offs. Oh, bliss, they come in handy sometimes don't they, lol. These were from the Papermill Shop.

With a bit of scrap paper and my new computer skills (lol) and it was done in a trice. The light wasn't very good for the photo though. I took it into work, didn't charge him as it was such a quickie and was rewarded with a big bacon buttie, yum!! Very nice, but the whole world including my mother,(who made me a full size coffee cake) is unwittingly out to make me fat again, lol. Ok, the odd treat won't hurt, but when these treats appear every day they will hurt badly. I'm going to have to put my foot down again. People think that once you get to your target, the diet is off. Wrong!!

One for the boys.

It's my stepsons birthday on tuesday and as usual i thought i had loads of time to make a card until i looked at the calender. So i was banished to my den this morning to make him a card.

The image is from the Papermania, "It's a mans world" clear set. The backing paper is Papermania Hampstead, as is the paper piecing on the chair.

I put the gadgets and beer on 3d foam pads and added some stickles to the beer. the brad is also papermania. The sentiment was done on the computer, so glad i learned to do this, no more wonky stamped sentiments,lol.                                                                                                                                      That's it from me today as i want to play with my beads now. Thanks for looking and enjoy the rest of the day. Di.xx

Happy Day.

Why does Blogger have to change stuff for the worse? Everything was fine, then they decide to alter the photo upload system. It has taken me ages to upload a photo. They did this a while back and had so many complaints that they changed it back, so here's hoping it'll happen again.
  Today's card is another Elzybells creation.

The "bones" paper is from DCWV stack 6 and the other bits are from my scrap box. The butterfly is done with an X.Cut punch with a couple of gems added.
It was such a lovely day yesterday that i walked to Hobbycraft (2 miles away) and back. Walking that far is nothing to me these days. Six months ago i wouldn't have dreamt of it,lol. I bought a few bags of mixed beads for my jewellery making frenzy. I don't know how long it will last so i'm making hay while the sun shines.

Target weight 9st 2 lb.  Today's weight 9st 2lb. Good girl.